Judge Alexei Zhigayev said Popkov would be stripped of his military rank of junior lieutenant.

Nicknamed the Angarsk Manic, a reference to the town he lived, Popkov is believed to be the deadliest serial killer in Russian history, with killings that date back to 1997. He was first arrested for a string of deaths in 2012 when DNA evidence linked him to the sexual assaults and killings of three women more than a decade earlier. That sparked additional investigations where authorities connected Popkov to more than 60 other deaths.

Irkutsk prosecutor Alexander Shkinev said earlier psychological and psychiatric examinations determined Popkov was sane, but that he committed the crimes out of some manic compulsion to kill.

Popkov's lack of a military rank will cost him $358 per month in pension. He plans to appeal his judgment to the Russian Supreme Court, Shkinev said.